Techbargains Reviews

Razer makes many products including mice, keyboards, gaming systems, and much much more. Today they shipped us the new Razer Orochi gaming mouse. It is Razer's first mobile mouse and touts that it is worthy of gaming. With some of the stats we have seen, it should be a good mouse to take on the run. On Razer's website, it claims that "Razer collaborates with professional gamers to develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge gaming peripherals utilizing proprietary technologies that give gamers the competitive edge." Let's see if they can back up those statements.

Main Features:

Precision 3G laser sensor

Tracking up to 100 in/s

Ambidextrous design

On-board memory

On-the-fly sensitivity adjustment

Gold plated USB

LED DPI Indicator

Zero-Acoustic Ultra-smooth Teflon feet

7 independently programmable buttons and macro support

Included customization software

Wired Mode

4000 DPI

1000Hz polling w/ 1ms response

Detachable 3 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord

Wireless Mode

2000 DPI

125Hz polling w/8ms response

Detachable 3ft braided micro USB cord

Powered by 2 AA batteries

What We Liked:

Installation: The mouse is ready to go right out of the bag. No installation is needed if you are planning on just using it as a normal mouse. It was plug-n-play. However, it did come with software that allows you to independently program the buttons for certain games and create profiles and macros. Macros can be very helpful if there is a sequence of keystrokes that you do repeatedly all the time.

Button and Wheel Assignments: All 7 buttons are programmable. The wheel is also programmable. This comes in handy when you need to minimize your game. Any one of the 7 buttons can be programed to minimize the screen. No more Alt+Tabbing. Buttons 6 and 7 are used by default to adjust the DPI sensitivity.

Size: The Orochi was made to be mobile. It is smaller and more compact than most regular mice. It is also ambidextrous, meaning it can be used with either hand which we think was thoughtful on Razer's part. It is rather light for a gaming mouse but once the 2 AA's are added it feels more apt for gaming.

4000/2000 DPI: 4000 DPI isn't the highest you can go but it is high enough to make it a gaming mouse. Even when the Orochi is in wireless mode it does well at 2000 DPI. The 8ms and 125Hz polling is a little low, but what do you expect -- it is wireless. There are a few 6000 DPI laser sensors out there, but we doubt you see much of a difference.

Indicator Lights: The battery indicator light is very handy in detecting when the battery is getting low. When the LED is blue the batteries have anywhere between a 100% to 39% charge. It turns red when it gets between 30% and 11%. Any lower and it will blink red. If you find it blinking blue, it is in pairing mode.

What We Didn't Like:

User Manual: We could not find all the information we needed in the user manual. We searched extensively when looking for how to update the firmware on the mouse. We had to go to forums to find the answer. Just so you know, after downloading the firmware software, it will ask you to enter into the bootloader mode. To do this, you hold down the left, right and wheel mouse buttons for 5 seconds or until it goes into the mode. It takes over from there.

Wheel Light: The option is not on by default. If you want it lit up, you will need to download the software and then click on the lighting tab. There is an option to turn it on there. We figured it would be on by default when plugged in by USB.

Our Verdict:

The problems we had with this mouse were minute. We personally loved this mouse as a mobile mouse. It fit well in the hand and performed well in games as well as the Office products. Once the batteries were added to the mix, the weight made it comfortable and helped the mouse to flow. Remember though when switching from battery to USB to switch off the battery option on the bottom of the mouse. Razer's first mobile mouse gets an A in our book.